Ode to Almond Milk

Now that I know that I should avoid dairy for the sake of my skin and digestive system I have had to find some substitutes for the dairy-laden meals I used to love. I have learned that with enough gaucamole cheeseless nachos are delicious and that high quality thin crust pizza with thinly cut salami can be tasty even if there is no cheese on it. Also, I discovered that in many situations Almond Milk can be a geat replacement for milk. I had tried soy and rice milk before and never really got on board but almond milk is by far my favourite yet! It's great in cereal or by the glass and I have even successfully used it in baking once or twice. My favourite kind is Silk True Almond Original. However, I also found a recipe in Chatelaine Magazine of all places for almond milk you can make yourself...

Homemade Almond Milk (Courtesy of Chatelaine)

• 1 cup sliced almonds
• 4 cups water
• 1/4 cup honey

Soak almonds in water overnight. In the morning puree almonds and water in blender for 3-5 minutes until very milky looking. Strain mixture into bowl through a cheesecloth-covered seive, pushing around the grounds with the back of a ladel to make sure you get all the "milk." Stir in honey and store in the fridge up to 3 days. Just make sure to give it a stir before you use it each time as it does separate a bit. Almond milk is super low in calories and carbs and doesn't have much fat in it at all. :)

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My sister is finally 13...

I mean 19, she's actually 19, but she'll be a preteen in my mind forever. We celebrated with really good pizza, a mini pub crawl and late night waffles...

Andrew and Levi in deep discussions.

Sisters

Pizzasogood.

 Our lonely table as we left...

 Sally and Victoria

 Victoria and Levi

 Free Birthday Waffle!

 Waffle!

 We're moose.

A little late...

My desire to blog comes in waves, sometimes I don't feel like it for weeks and then one day I'll will write five posts. Anyways, I never did do a final diet update so even though it ended a couple weeks ago I will update now. In about 33 days I lost a total of 11.2lbs. Now, about two weeks later, I have reintroduced most things (although I am staying away from dairy for the most part as I seem to have negative reactions to it) and I have manged to maintain my new weight. I would still like to lose another 7-10lbs but will try to do so over time, with gradual and permanent changes such as more excersise and clean eating as often as possible. It was a difficut five weeks but it was the first time I have ever been successful with a diet and it showed me that I have a lot more self control than I give myself credit for.

Dinner

 Tonight's dinner: Homemade turkey burgers with guacamole, mashed sweet potatoes and veggies.

Turkery Bugers:
Mix extra lean ground turkey with minced garlic, finely chopped white onion, chopped parsley and salt and pepper and form them into burger patties (or a heart like mine...) Cook burgers in a frying pan over medium/high heat about 7 minutes each side or until internal temp reaches 75'C.

Guacamole:
In a food processor blend 1 ripe avacado, 1 tbsp diced onion, 1 tbsp diced tomato, a small squirt of lemon, a generous squirt of lime, a dash of garlic powder, salt, pepper and chilli flakes and a little squirt of white vinegar.

Mashed Sweet Potatoes:
Wash and peel potatoes, chop into medium sized cubes, boil until tender, mash and add a bit of salt and pepper to taste.

Baked Tomato-Eggplant...Thing

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I have very few dinners that I enjoy and can have on this diet and Baked Tomato-Eggplant...Thing is one of them. It's essentially Eggplant Parmesean but without the parmesean, bread crumbs, flour, oil or egg. It's just baked eggplant, layered with homemade tomato sauce and whatever else I have laying around, usually topped with pine nuts or crumbled cashews to add texture that is then baked again. Here's how I make it...(Recipe makes 2 servings)

Ingredients
1 large eggplant or two baby eggplants
5 medium tomatoes
1/4 white onion
2 cloves garlic
Pine nuts or crumbled cashews
Italian herbs and spices and salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Sauce: Start the sauce early as it needs time to boil down. Wash and dice tomatoes and put them in a large frying pan or sauce pan over medium heat add some salt if you like. Let them cook for about 5 minutes. Then add chopped onion and diced or minced garlic. Let this mixture cook/boil down until after onion and garlic are soft. Then I like to puree everything in a food processor and place back in the pan to reduce and thicken more. (Careful-hot) Add herbs, spices, salt, pepper or anything you like until the taste of the sauce is to your liking. (I use basil, oregano, salt, fresh ground black pepper and dried chilli flakes.) After 1-2 hours of cooking the sauce should be ready, but leave this to your own judgement as I am not an expert, if it tastes too tomatoey keep cooking.

Eggplant: Preheat the oven to 375 C. Wash and peel the eggplant. (The skin is toxic when un-cooked so resit the urge to gnaw on it while cooking....) Cut the eggplant into discs approximately 1 to 2cm thick. I then place eggplant into strainer and sprinkle salt on it because I once read you need to let it sweat out its bitterness... Then I rinse and dry it. Place eggplant onto non-stick cookie sheet and bake in the oven 5 minutes on each side.

Baked...Thing: I use a meatloaf pan for the next step. Layer eggplant and sauce in pan. Sometimes I add spinach or chicken. When you run out of eggplant do one last layer of sauce and then you can sprinkle pine nuts or crushed cashews on top. The nuts brown nicely in the oven and add texture and more flavour to the dish. Place in the oven (which is still at 375 C) and bake for 30-45 minutes depending on how thick the slices are and how deep the layers go.  You can serve it on a bed of fresh spinach for extra points.

WARNING: If you are not on a diet/lactose intolerant/allergic to gluten please eat regular eggplant parmesean and not this. Thankyou.